Weinberger on Digital Identity

Weinberger's speaking at SuperNova. Digital Identity? He hates it. It has ZERO user-driven demand. It's coming from top down - from "they" -- that there is the SPAM issue and the credit card fraud concerns, but that still doesn't convince him that we need it.

In World of Ends -- Doc came up with the term "repetive mistake syndrome" -- failure to understand where the web's value comes from. End-to-end network, stupid network (Eisenberg), let the innovation stay at the edges, including something like Digital ID.

Both Acrobat and Flash are proprietary systems which have entered the center of the network and required to for instance, use the IRS site, to deal with the government. He doesn't like that.

We can become "Internet Amish" if we decide to opt-out of ... (forgot what he was saying) ... DRM sounds "perfect, fantastic, great ".. how can you argue with it? It's all great on paper -- it's not exactly the way it's working. But what if it requires me to have "trusted computer" and "trusted program" PROBABLY BOTH FROM MICROSOFT ... locks me out of my own pop culture if it's the only way I can get music, movies, etc.

It could result in a bifurcating of the web -- one you must be "authenticated" to be a part of - one that's more like the current public web. An open messy web. Perhaps the companies that participate in the open webby mess, will be a little less controlling, to be a lot less controlling.

The way this authenticated web looks -- like a corporate intranet -- boring. IM swept the web because it's funny, flirty, wild. Now it's part of corporate surveillance -- checking to see if you're at your desk, if you're instantly interruptible.

NOT FINISHED WILL ADD MORE LATER.